So, what exactly does a Curriculum Coordinator do,” is a question frequently received from both those within and outside of the educational community.  The clearest answer would incorporate the title of the position:  coordinate opportunities about which teachers and administrators might reflect, review, and refine the school’s curriculum. 

Embedded in this answer is the quest for assurance that our intended (written), assessed, and taught curricula are in alignment and agreement.  Interestingly enough, when explaining the role of a curriculum coordinator, the varied way the word curriculum is used often clouds clearly defining what curriculum is, what it should be, and what it hopes to accomplish.
As we continue our ongoing and cyclical curricular work here at Shanghai American School (SAS), the etymology of the word can aid in forming a shared understanding. Currere, the infinitive Latin root of  “curriculum,” means to run a course, or race a chariot along a specified path or track. We can consider each academic year as lap on a track or checkpoint in a marathon race with increasing rigor and expectations for (intellectual and creative) stamina in the quest for “personal best.” At SAS, we look to our own standards and benchmarks as the parameters for the academic expectations and learning targets for each year.  

SAS standards are an amalgamation compounded from a variety of respected resources.  These include, but are not limited to U.S. national standards of various disciplines (e.g., the National Council Teachers of Mathematics, Music Educators National Conference, National Council of Teachers of English, National Association for the Education of Young Children), exemplary U.S. state standards, standards from the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) collaborative initiative involving international schools and U.S.-based educational organizations, the objectives of the International Diploma Progamme where applicable, and most importantly, the research and collaborative efforts of our SAS teachers and administrators. 

These standards and benchmarks are housed in Atlas, our internal, internet-based curriculum system through which teachers can choose those benchmarks most relevant to a particular unit of study. 

The Atlas Curriculum Management system is accessible to all teachers and administrators, allowing for transparency and communication for stronger continuity from the students’ perspective as s/he moves from grade to grade.  It also allows us to track our standards alignment and assessment practices — the opportunities to observe student attainment toward learning targets, to note trends, such as those areas deemed essential or of greater import by selected attention and repetition over time, and to generate reports such as the ones below to help further our conversations about curriculum and assessment and appropriately evaluate our practices and curricular decisions. While the SAS Curriculum Coordinator serves both campuses, each campus has its own Atlas expert on the system’s functionality for continued instruction in documenting (the taught) curriculum and support as needed.

Figure 1: Standards Assessment —
Methods

Educators’ understanding of what curriculum should be has changed drastically from the time when we were students.  A long-term veteran of education jokingly shared how teacher-training in curriculum used to be centered around which publisher was best and how to choose a good textbook for the school.  Where basal readers, Multiplication and Periodic charts, rote memorization, and lectures with students (hopefully) taking notes previously sufficed, we now know that this era requires students to extend beyond simply knowing to understanding as engaged collaborators in the educational process, guided by an educational professional while learning through hands-on opportunities which challenge them to explore real-world problems.  With the exponential increase in the amount of information literally at a student’s fingertips over the last fifteen years, graduates of this decadewill be assumed competent in discerning which information is relevant and able to manipulate or apply it to new situations to fulfill the needs of a specific project or task at hand — often referred to as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

SAS’s commitment to developing these necessary skills in our students are most clearly seen through  cross-curricular and co-curricular Established School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs) – those dispositions known as our E.A.G.L.E.S. — which are introduced, reinforced, and reiterated across grade levels and disciplines.  We instruct our students in such ways that they increasingly become Empowered — risk-taking and imaginative life-long learners, Adaptable, Globally-Minded, Literate — and communicative, inclusive of artistic expression, Ethical, and Skilled Inquirers. 

These ESLRs (our E.A.G.L.E.S.) and site-created Standards and Benchmarks in their curriculum review process.  Some have an on-going review process; we are currently using a five-year review model established in 2005-06 to examine our curricular practices and set our professional development plans across subject areas.  Currently, Social Studies is under “review,” meaning we are in the process of assuring the departmental philosophy not only aligns with our SAS Mission, Core Values, and Vision Statements, but is reflective of current instructional practices and Essential Agreements.  The Social Studies Task Force, representative of Social Studies educators from each division on both campuses, is extracting from the wealth of information available to students, those skills most essential or enduring understanding — the bullseye of understanding and skills reflected in Figure 2.  Enduring Understandings reflect the knowledge, skills, and understandings educators want the students to retain long after the unit of study or course has ended.

Figure 2 – Enduring Understandings (adapted from Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design)

The strength of our Curriculum Review process is that it is never “finished.”  While students may graduate and pass the proverbial finish line, educators continue to review, renew, implement and adapt the curriculum or educational path to incorporate the latest research and proven best practices to the benefit of Shanghai American School students.